Mini Posts

Before we hit the holidays and the flurry of posts that will surely come out of that, I thought I would get down some of the items that happen or thoughts that occur that don't warrant a full post, but should be saved for posterity in one form or another. So today, we have mini posts or if you would rather think of them this way, Random Thoughts. Here we go:

Loganisms

Anyone with children will look back and remember when they were in that stage between diapers and a child's complete autonomy in the bathroom. You know what I am talking about. That stage where you are glad you don't have to deal with diapers anymore, but you close your eyes and sigh when you hear that little voice call you from the bathroom, "Dad/Mom, I'm dooone." That is where Logan is right now. However, Shannon has trained him well. Just before I left for work the other day, I heard the familiar, "Mooom" followed by "Bring the Matches."

Logan had a couple of pretty late nights this last weekend and so when he went to bed on Saturday night, the boy slept hard. Sunday morning he came in and said, "Dad, my clothes turned wet in the night." I asked him if he had gone potty in his bed and he said, "No, my clothes just turned wet." Now who among us has not had to deal with that pesky instantaneous condensation on our clothes in the middle of the night.

Shannon Masters Another Skill

After having Kate, Danae lent Shannon this amazing device that covers her while breastfeeding (appropriate blog topic??? Not Sure, I will proceed cautiously) while not smothering the baby like a regular blanket. Shannon loved it so much she wanted to give them away to every expectant mother she knows. However, the cost was not in her baby shower gift budget. So, my mother showed her how to sew these contraptions and then for Shannon's birthday, gave her a sewing machine. Pretty cool! So now we only have half a kitchen table, but the kids will be styling at Halloween with custom made trick or treat bags sewn by their incredible mother.

The Death of Rotary

Because of my position at the hospital, I was recently invited to attend a Rotary meeting. I am positive that when I walked into the room, I brought the median age down by at least five years. Anyway, following this meeting, I was invited to join. Clearly you would think this would be an easy answer of "HELL NO" (I thank my new sister-in-law Danica for teaching me the art of using the H word. I still won't speak it out loud, but prior to her joining our family, I probably would not have used it in the written form either. However, when it comes to joining Rotary, I don't know if there is strong enough language to voice my opposition. Anyway, I digress) but the person inviting me was the hospital District Board President. Also the CEO and CNO are both members. I begged off by explaining we had just had a new baby and it wouldn't be fair to place additional burdens on my wife by taking time for Rotary. (Thanks for taking one for the team babe.) At the same time, I do a presentation to all new hires about communication between different generations. One of the things mentioned in the presentation is that groups like Rotary are in severe trouble because of their inability to attract younger members. It made me reflect on what it is that my generation does that has taken the place of a Rotary like group. I realized we are right here. We are on-line. Facebook is the new Rotary, or else my fantasy football league or whatever. You get my point. With this new medium, I can attend my "Rotary meeting" while holding a baby on my lap or playing fetch with my toddler...uh, I mean dog. Because no one would play fetch with an actual child...Right? That's just crazy talk. Unless someone else actually does this...Anyone, Anyone. I didn't think so, that is why I don't either. Moving on. (Since I have talked myself into a corner and am not sure of the point I was trying to make, we will now skip to the next topic.)

Bathroom Floor Update

While we have not seen 100% success, we have seen definite improvement. Sure would have liked 100% success. Will live with improvement.

Missing The Claridges

By this point, I thought our family would have gotten over the withdrawals of having had Cody and Danica move away from us. It hasn't happened. My kids received e-mails from Danica the other day and it was bigger than the 4th of July (Actually Braden and Logan hate the 4th and fireworks in general. Bad analogy. Oh well, I think the point is there). Shannon and I truly miss visiting with them and playing games. We are avid game players and Cody and Danica were great sports about coming and playing with us after our kids were in bed. Danica also brings a cutthroat approach not normally seen in Shannon's family but is quite common on my side. I think I almost cried the first time she stabbed me in the back during a game. I was so happy. Now our lives are a little empty with their absence. We hope they are doing well in the big city and we hope they know how much we love and miss them.

Stranger In A Strange Land

I want to express my gratitude to all of the females who are friends and family that make up our little blogging world. I enjoy reading and taking part. However, it has not escaped me that there are not many men involved in this new ritual. I appreciate you letting me be a part of the "family" of bloggers. I don't know why, but I have always loved writing. I am much more expressive in this medium (Because you all know what a wall flower I am in real life) and will read obsessively about anything. (That is why I am and always will be the Trivial Pursuit king. Anyone thinking differently, bring it on.) So I appreciate your indulgence and not asking, "Who is this guy and what is he doing in our female dominated arena?" You may be thinking it, but thank you for not saying it.

In a related note, I am obsessive about spelling in our blog. I will have a Word document open to spell words I am unsure of. I blame this on the fact that Ms. Joyce Flamm is a volunteer here at the hospital. Seeing her and feeling her presence makes having a misspelled word just not an option. I secretly believe she would find out about it and mark our blog down one letter grade.

Gray Anatomy

Has anyone else found gray hair yet? Wow, that sucks. I don't know if Mike Bradley reads this or not, but I know he has discovered plenty, but they are mostly in his beard. I, on the other hand, am a little perplexed as to why this bothers me so much. I don't really have any hair to speak of. So when what I do have grows out to about a quarter of an inch and I spot a few gray hairs, (Actually that would be Shannon, who for whatever reason takes great pleasure in pointing them out to me), I really shouldn't be that bothered. The baldness is really the bigger issue. But I guess that phenomenon has been around for so long that I have long ago accepted that fate. It just is another reminder that while I am not OLD, I am certainly not in the young range anymore either. I was talking with the teachers' quorum I work with about how excited I was for the new Indiana Jones movie. I asked them if they were excited and one of them thought for a moment and said, "Yeah, I think I saw one of those on TV once." My death clock started ticking at that moment when I realized that not one of those boys had been born when the THIRD movie was released in 1989. Bring on the gray hair, I am half way dead anyway.

I look forward to posting Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas items in the near future and look forward to reading about all of yours.